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As it happenedended
6 years ago

Iran nuclear deal: Donald Trump must offer 'concrete steps on the way ahead' after pulling out of pact, says Boris Johnson

Foreign secretary urges US to 'avoid taking any action that would hinder other parties from continuing to make the agreement work'

Jon Sharman,Samuel Osborne
Wednesday 09 May 2018 08:04 EDT
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Donald Trump withdraws from nuclear deal with Iran

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Donald Trump must bring forward “concrete steps” for dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions after announcing he would pull the US out of the 2015 international agreement, Boris Johnson has said.

Speaking in the House of Commons, the foreign secretary said that while Washington’s continuing involvement in the deal would have been “the better course”, responsibility now lay with “the American administration to spell out their view of the way ahead”.

Mr Trump had committed himself to finding a new solution and MPs should take him “at his word”, Mr Johnson said. Mr trump later advised Iran not to restart their nuclear programme.

“In the meantime, I urge the US to avoid taking any action that would hinder other parties from continuing to make the agreement work in the interest of our collective national security,” he added.

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Mr Trump‘s announcement that he would pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal was “silly and superficial”, Iran’s supreme leader said earlier, and contained “more than 10 lies”.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on his official website: “He had maybe more than 10 lies in his comments. He threatened the regime and the people, saying you’re doing this and that. Mr Trump, I tell you on behalf of the Iranian people: You’ve made a mistake.”

Hard-line members of parliament also burned an American flag after Mr Trump called the nuclear agreement “rotten” and “defective at its core” – defying weeks of lobbying by France, Britain and Germany who had wanted him to remain in the pact.

“Trump does not have the mental capacity to deal with issues,” Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said. The billionaire only understands the language of force and his decision to pull out of the agreement will isolate the US, Mr Larijani added.

Announcing his decision on Tuesday Mr Trump said he would re-impose sanctions on Iran to punish it for what he called “state-sponsored terror” in the Middle East.

“Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could be strongly sanctioned,” he added.

France called his withdrawal an “error” and said the US was not the “economic policeman of the planet”, while the country’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, insisted the deal was “not dead”.

The leaders of the UK, France and Germany said they had a “continuing commitment” to the deal. Emmanuel Macron is to speak with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday and urge him to keep to its terms.

In a tweet, he said “the nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake”, and Mr Le Drian added that there was now a “real risk” of confrontation in the region.

Mr Trump’s decision was unpopular at home, a poll released on Tuesday suggested. Fewer than one in three Americans agreed with pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, with 42 per cent explicitly against the move and 29 per cent in favour; 28 per cent did not register a preference.

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, however, backed Mr Trump and said he had shown “courageous leadership”. “The deal didn’t reduce Iran’s aggression. It dramatically increased it,” he added.

China urged all parties to stick to the deal, to which it, along with Russia and the three European countries, are party.

Gong Xiaosheng, its envoy for the Middle East, said the agreement was “very serious and important” and that it promoted peace and stability in the region. “Dialogue is better than confrontation,” he added, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

6 years ago

And with that we are ending our coverage for today. Thanks for reading.

Steve Anderson9 May 2018 20:18

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